A political matter: a huge doubt...

[Steel2686]

Working with the public, you learn what topics to avoid. Politics and Religion are the two worst.

Hit the nail on the head, Joe. The difference between the two is with political debates, people usually just get angry. Religious debates turn violent.

[ConElite]

Hit the nail on the head, Joe. The difference between the two is with political debates, people usually just get angry. Religious debates turn violent.

A lot as to do with religion.

Think of this, Put every single Religion aside and There would never be war. In my opinion religion is a form of control and another reason for humans to hate eachother.

Dont get me wrong, Whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better/Safe thats awesome, And I come from a very very catholic family. I have done my confirmation and all that stuff and now I choose not to believe in anything.

[Steel2686]

The problem is, those who turn violent with religion as their justification are the extreme minority. Unfortunately, they are the ones whos voices are heard. The silent, peaceful majority is left with the burden thier "religious leaders" placed on them by using violence as a mouthpiece.

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

Here's my take, for what it's worth:

Problems start when one group generalizes and dehuminizes another. Unfortunately this happens far too often in both religious and political discussions. No one is personally responsible for the actions or beliefs of another so don't be too upset if you find someone that disagrees with you, however stubbornly. The only person you have complete control over is yourself.

Focus on personal relationships, they're the basis of society. Retain your beliefs, but be open enough to recognize your mistakes or that you don't have all the answers. If nothing else, remember your manners.

[Mark B]

...keeps the war from coming to our soil...

Why is it that so few people understand that? Really bothers me when friends of mine talk about the war and how "pointless" it is. I feel that anyone that gets all of their political information from the news shouldnt be allowed to talk politics.

God help us if a democrat gets elected and pulls us out of Iraq. I guess we can wait for one more 9/11 to happen before we realize that we can never leave the middle east.

[Z Ya Later]

Here's my take, for what it's worth:

Problems start when one group generalizes and dehuminizes another. Unfortunately this happens far too often in both religious and political discussions. No one is personally responsible for the actions or beliefs of another so don't be too upset if you find someone that disagrees with you, however stubbornly. The only person you have complete control over is yourself.

Focus on personal relationships, they're the basis of society. Retain your beliefs, but be open enough to recognize your mistakes or that you don't have all the answers. If nothing else, remember your manners.

Very well put!

Bashing Bush has become the national past-time it seems. "He's a war-mongerer!!" "He's sending our children to die!!" "He's in cahoots with the oil companies!!" I find it mildly amusing and mildly disturbing that a lot of people seem to focus on what the current president does "wrong" and forgets what every other one has done "wrong." I find it majorly disturbing that a lot or people are too willing to point the finger to others and not make a change either in themselves or in their community. The old saying goes..."Everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it." The older saying goes..."Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven." As another old saying goes..."Why do you look on the splinter that is in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye?" I'm not saying all of this to bring guilt, because I am just as guilty as everyone else when it comes to this. Instead, I say this as a reminder that we (myself included) should look to ourselves to and for change, not to others.

Doc, to answer your question, I think 94 White Devil said it best...we are blessed to live in a nation where any natural-born citizen can be president. To use the cliché phrase, God bless America.

[Joe 1320]

The really cool thing is that people can discuss their opinions and it doesn't turn into a flame war.

[BrdWAtti2d]

That the economy, the war (witch sickens me), gas prices, the man is evil and in it for money.

And the rest of the politicians are in it for the good of the American people?

And TV wrestling is real?

[3800_Firebird]

And TV wrestling is real?

It's not??

Political matters do tend to polarize a lot of people, now more than ever. I think it's American to passionately debate most anything. Right now, it feels like a low time in leadership across the world. Are any of the three main canditates (Obama, Clinton, McCain) truly up to the task of leading this country, the greatest free country on this earth?

Nary a one of 'em has convinced me that they are.

I went to the Indy 500 race couple weekends ago, and it brought tears to my eyes to look over the crowd of people during the national anthem. I kept thinking what a great land where nearly a quarter million people can be in one place and not worry about a car bomb going off in the parking lot or being sniped off.

The freedom we enjoy that was bought, not just handed to us, by the sacrifice of brave men and women before us and defended by brave men and women to this day.

[Wild Willy]

My opinion, not to insult anyone else: This is the world's best and most blessed country, the people here can and have moved mountains, put humans on the moon, inveted the airplane. unfortunately, we are run by a bunch of politicians (poly- many, and tics-small, blood-sucking creatures) that consider everything 'their' prize to be divided up amongst their friends and supporters-

This election is a classic- we get to choose between flavor "a" or flavor"b" but what flavor I would prefer isn't even on the menu- I would like to see a real, honest working class business man who wasn't born into wealth, part of the good old boy network step up and run the government, by the people, for the people. Unfortuanately, if you aren't born into the old money, connected network, you don't have much chance of even getting on the ballot-

What we need is a check box on the ballot that would say " of the above" which would force another primary, and different choices- IMHO

edit: why does the in ' of the above' not appear?'

edit 2- well, that cleared things up! How about not one, or nun?

[Dave M]

My opinion, not to insult anyone else: This is the world's best and most blessed country, the people here can and have moved mountains, put humans on the moon, inveted the airplane. unfortunately, we are run by a bunch of politicians (poly- many, and tics-small, blood-sucking creatures) that consider everything 'their' prize to be divided up amongst their friends and supporters-

This election is a classic- we get to choose between flavor "a" or flavor"b" but what flavor I would prefer isn't even on the menu- I would like to see a real, honest working class business man who wasn't born into wealth, part of the good old boy network step up and run the government, by the people, for the people. Unfortuanately, if you aren't born into the old money, connected network, you don't have much chance of even getting on the ballot-

What we need is a check box on the ballot that would say " of the above" which would force another primary, and different choices- IMHO

edit: why does the in ' of the above' not appear?'

edit 2- well, that cleared things up! How about not one, or nun?

Obama was not born into money. He was raised very working class by his (white) mother and grandparents. He got himself into a very prestigous ivy league school and made something of himself. He moved to Chicago and began working with poor African American children. He got elected to Congress. He is not, and has never been, a muslim, despite what people may want to believe. How does that not fit your definition? Because he's not republican?

[TraceZ]

Because he's not republican?

Because like all his modern liberal brothers, he is more a socialist than anything else. They are all about redistribution of wealth on a grand scale and socialized health care. They want every American to be as dependant on big government as possible.

They forget that in order to have winners you must have losers. They forget that giving Americans the ability to succeed means you must also give them the ability to fail.

Even as we stand today, the poor in America have luxuries beyond comprehension of truely poor countries. They also have health care unheard of in poorer countries. They have cell phones, televisions, video games, cars, designer clothes, etc. They have access to the emergency rooms of the best hospitals in the world. Why should they work harder, they already have it all and the democrats keep on promising them even more to get their votes!

Those of us with something to lose are very afraid. My taxes are already unbearable. Ask me to pay more taxes and that means even less for my family. Letting Bush's tax cuts lapse would be Obama's first raping of the wealthy equaling the largest tax increase in history. That will really stimulate the economy! When was the last time a poor person gave anyone a good paying job? If you hammer the rich with high taxes it only hurts the employees.

My family already has excellent health care. Why would I want to spend more so freeloaders can have more care than they already get while at the same time the quality of the care my family receives declines? Do I want long waits for a medical procedure I need? I have friends from England that actually came here with their elderly grandmother so they could pay out of pocket to get her the care she needed before it was too late because the crappy system in England was failing to get to her. Is that what we want here? No thanks! I'll vote for republicans until the democrats get their heads out of the socialist clouds.

[gimp19]

Bush is about to get rid of the middle class, people with a ton of money wont even notice the gas/food price's, but the middle class will become poor trying to afford it. I still cant belive the sob made it 8years, if Mcain gets elected

[TraceZ]

Bush is about to get rid of the middle class, people with a ton of money wont even notice the gas/food price's, but the middle class will become poor trying to afford it. I still cant belive the sob made it 8years, if Mcain gets elected

I agree the middle class has been shrinking. It has nothing however to do with the Bush administration. It was happenning before he came to office and it will continue after he is gone.

How do you put the blame on Bush? Clinton signed NAFTA and gave China most favorable nation status. There went our manufacturing jobs. Then we had the .COM bust and 9/11 both in 2001 that weakened the economy combined with the recent mortgage crisis which is also no fault of Bush's. To top it off, believe it or not the high fuel prices are controlled by the world markets, not Bush.

People blame Bush for everything. I have a splinter in my foot, somehow it's Bush's fault.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

Bush is about to get rid of the middle class, people with a ton of money wont even notice the gas/food price's, but the middle class will become poor trying to afford it. I still cant belive the sob made it 8years, if Mcain gets elected

You are correct. The middle class is shrinking. The middle class is defined as $27,500-$100,000 a year. The problem is the stats say it is shrinking because people are moving OVER the $100,000 a year mark. You don't hear that in the media when you hear the middle class is shrinking. People just assume people are moving out the bottom end of range. That would be a false ASSumption. The problem with the stat is it has not been inflated in 20+ years.

Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system in the history of mankind. The more the politicians hurt the capitalistic system the more it hurts the lower income earners. If you raise the income taxes on the top 2% to something like 90% which is what it used to be you only can distribute about $2000 per year to the poor. Reagan proved that when you lower the taxes on the top income earners you create jobs for the low income earners that provide them many times more than $2000 per year.

Everybody needs to put their preconceived opinions about the 2 candidates running for president and look deeper into their beliefs.